As The BRAD BLOG reported over the weekend, an internecine firefight has blown up among progressives who support the candidacy of Marcy Winograd against entrenched "Blue Dog" Jane Harman (D-CA), and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), long regarded as one of the more progressive members of the U.S. Congress.

Woolsey, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and a longtime Advisory Board Member of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), stunned progressives over the last several days when it was revealed that she was endorsing, and would be participating in a fundraiser for Harman next Saturday, January 16th, as noted in our report yesterday.

In the wake of Woolsey's curious support for the seven term Democrat, PDA is issuing an email blast to supporters tonight, asking them to sign on to an open letter (posted in full below) demanding Woolsey withdraw from the upcoming event, as well as drop her endorsement of Harman who will be challenged this year by Winograd, a longtime leader in PDA's Los Angeles chapter, and the first candidate of 2010 to be endorsed by the group. Winograd ran an unsuccessful challenge against Harman in 2006, but has begun her campaign earlier this year, and hopes to capitalize on growing progressive outrage at entrechned Congressional Democrats such as Harman. In a recent letter to supporters, Winograd described Harman as "the Joe Lieberman of the House."

In the open letter posted here, initially signed by Tim Carpenter, PDA's National Director, Mimi Kennedy and PDA's Advisory Board Chair, the group, describes the process signing the letter as "painful," but describes the negative response from members to the Woolsey endorsement of Harman, and asks for her to withdraw from the event immediately.

"The tone and emphasis of the responses vary, but the overwhelming gist is clear," Carpenter and Kennedy write to Woolsey, "The progressive base is upset about your scheduled involvement [in the January 16 fund-raising event] and hopes that you will withdraw from this event. As an organization, Progressive Democrats of America joins in that request."...

The letter goes on to detail reasons for the request, most notably Harman's less-than-progressive record in Congress and appeals to Woolsey's long-term position as a reliable leader in the progressive community.

"Given your longstanding and exemplary leadership on a wide range of peace and justice issues," the letter reads, "it would be counterproductive to aid Rep. Harman's re-election efforts."

The letter notes Harman's "October 2002 vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq," saying that it was "stark contrast to the 'no' votes by most House Democrats."

Harman's 'appalling record'

"Harman has an equally appalling record on civil liberties, having lobbied the New York Times to suppress the story about Bush's wiretaps on the eve of the 2004 election, then going on television to defend the illegal wiretaps," the PDA appeal continues before noting "Winograd's decades of dedication to working for economic equity, social justice, civil liberties and peace."

They add that Winograd's record "offer[s] a sharp contrast to the incumbent in California's 36th district. Unlike the incumbent, Winograd will represent the public interest, not Wall Street or war profiteers."

In addition to Winograd's comparison of Harman to Lieberman, her campaign has also recently highlighted the Congresswoman's remarks to a 1998 gathering in Los Angeles where she opened by saying, according to the Los Angeles Times, "I was flattered to be introduced in the last election as the best Republican in the Democratic primary. I accept."

Harman's office has not responded to a request by The BRAD BLOG for comment on those reported comments.

Woolsey's Board Membership at Stake?

The BRAD BLOG has asked Carpenter what his group, which boasts some 130,000 members, intends to do should Woolsey decline to pull out from the event before the "DEADLINE" of "Wednesday, January 13 at 12:00 PM EST" as noted at the top of the letter. He was non-committal, but made clear that her position as a member of the groups Advisory Board may well be at stake.

"We're hopeful and remain optimistic when Lynn sees the response from the grass roots, she'll do the right thing, and pull out of the event," Carpenter told The BRAD BLOG by phone late this afternoon.

"The purpose of this letter and email blast to our supporters tonight is to relay the concerns that our members have, and our hope is that she will not go forward with her fundraising event.

"It's not just the PDA members, but the important voices from progressives around the country that we hope she hears. We hope she'll understand the importance and gravity of this issue."

But if not? And if she fails to drop her support for Harman?

"We're willing and committed to taking the next step. So, stay tuned…," he said.

Woolsey's office did not immediately return our request for comment on PDA's letter, or her endorsement of Harman.

* * *

The "Open Letter to Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey," with subject head "CPC Co-chair and PDA Advisory Board member Rep. Lynn Woolsey Headlines Fundraiser for War Hawk, Rep. Jane Harman" is now posted here. PDA asks for progressives to sign on in support. The complete text of the letter also follows below...

DEADLINE: Wednesday, January 13 at 12:00 PM EST--Noon Eastern.

Dear Lynn,

In recent days, ever since the announcement of your scheduled appearance as the headliner at the January 16 fund-raising event in Venice for Rep. Harman, we have been hearing about it from many PDA activists and other progressives in California and around the country.
The tone and emphasis of the responses vary, but the overwhelming gist is clear: The progressive base is upset about your scheduled involvement and hopes that you will withdraw from this event.

As an organization, Progressive Democrats of America joins in that request.

Given your longstanding and exemplary leadership on a wide range of peace and justice issues, it would be counterproductive to aid Rep. Harman’s re-election efforts. Her pro-war record is well known, having voted most recently to spend billions to continue the occupation of Iraq and escalate in Afghanistan. Her October 2002 vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq was in stark contrast to the "no" votes by most House Democrats. Harman has an equally appalling record on civil liberties, having lobbied the New York Times to suppress the story about Bush's wiretaps on the eve of the 2004 election, then going on television to defend the illegal wiretaps. In addition, she voted for the bankruptcy bill, then more recently voted against mortgage relief in bankruptcy court, despite the fact that several thousand of her constituents are facing foreclosure. On the health care front, she recently voted against fast-tracking affordable generic medications for patients with breast cancer, brain tumors, Parkinson's and rare diseases.

Fortunately, Rep. Harman faces a strong primary challenge from someone who exemplifies the idealistic commitments and progressive values that have been central to your work in Congress. Marcy Winograd’s decades of dedication to working for economic equity, social justice, civil liberties and peace offer a sharp contrast to the incumbent in California’s 36th district. Unlike the incumbent, Winograd will represent the public interest, not Wall Street or war profiteers.

As Marcy Winograd said in the speech that kicked off her current campaign: "Jane Harman took us to war without taking a second look at the National Intelligence Estimate, which highlighted and boxed analysts’ doubts about the fictitious weapons of mass destruction. Jane Harman not only took us to war, but continued to waste our taxpayer dollars on supplemental budgets that hid the true cost of the war by not including the price tag in the Defense Department budget."

The reason that we have Rep. Donna Edwards in the House today as a stalwart advocate for peace and justice is precisely because of her successful primary campaign that unseated a non-progressive Democratic incumbent. Surely such victories are in the interests of all progressives.

This is a painful letter for us to sign, particularly because of our longtime admiration and deep respect for you. But we hope you'll agree that progressive principles must prevail among friends. We urge you to withdraw from the fund-raising event for Rep. Harman’s campaign.

First: Your blog is terrible. Terribly written, terribly edited, terrible content. You should stop. And if someone is paying you to promote "Obama's Health Care Plan" (did HE have one??) they should stop, because their money is wasted.

Second: Which Obama Health Care Plan should I be supporting? Is it the one with the Public Option?

Just read Renzo's opednews link. Thanks for that. Holy shit! What a piece. I didn't know Waxman was another Israel hardliner.(I guess I shouldn't be so surprised after the overwhelming Congressional dismissal of the Goldstone Report). His embrace of hardright Israeli ideology sure looks compatible to me with not going to bat for Sibel Edmonds.

Thanks also for the link Renzoku - I'm glad I got to read Marcy's address to the LA Jews for Peace - which Waxman grossly misrepresented. The woman is far too competent for the halls of Congress, methinks.

I'm not such a huge fan of this very harsh threat. I think it's fine to use their differences for campaigning and to push Woolsey behind closed doors, but we don't need disunity in the party out in the open.

methinks before we see a solution, we're gonna need to see the problem stated differently and repeatedly. Somewhere, we gotta see a pattern that we can predict and work with instead of this after the fact amazement we're constantly catching ourselves in.

It's what was referred to elsewhere in Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. What surprises us is almost for sure planned by those intending to shock and awe and torture when they see fit.

How do we recognize the oligarchs and friedmanites (neocons and neolibs) better and earlier and bring back our America before it goes any further into Pinochet's Chile?

Mister DLC Chicago fraud is providing the insurance industry the abject servitude they purchased with the 20 million bucks they paid this skid,,,Cosmic Justice will sort this out, and it is not going to be pretty...I regret voting for this joke in spite of my misgivings about his AIG swag/bribes while still a Senator.

Not to mention his fellow travelers that he has appointed to "look forward, not back", Feckin Shitenozzle!

Now that I have vented on the Big Picture....Rep. Woolsey is my congress critter and it hurts my heart that she has to play ball with
Major Harmon of the Mossad...Congresswoman Woolsey is a great representative and has assisted my family on several matters for which she has my eternal gratitude.

ok so we need to see what AIPAC and their neocon critters (and now apparently their neolib critters too) have on our favorite formerly honest folk like woolsey, waxman, wexler, dorgan, dodd,.................. before they get to the rest of the folk who so far can afford to be honest.

obviously Sibel is going to be key in this. BRAAAAADDDDD (yelled in a Mr Wizard tone of voice).

A week or so ago, I was notified by the WA St Democratic Party (as someone who is on their mailing list having been an appointed local officer) that Rep. Brian Baird would not be seeking reelection. Baird has been on the right side of a lot of issues, so much as Wexler's choice to remove himself from future consideration, Baird's announcement was somewhat of a disappointment.

But now I think I know why Baird made his decision, and it wouldn't at all surprise me if he was "encouraged" to step down.

Soul,
Gracias on the youtube. Baird and Ellison were good guys. I wanna say they rocked. They tried anyway. So does it do any good to document this decline of the PDA? And how much can folk like Brad documen?

Renzo - I havent followed the full 140 comments of the more recent Harman/Winograd post, but I think it's clear that the Democrats fear AIPAC. You just can't stand up and say Palestinians are being slaughtered (in many ways, not just a bomb or a bullet) without risking your political career. The video i posted (from Al-Jazeera no less) was a nail in Baird's coffin. I'm sure someone under the title "leadership" told him that he really screwed the pooch on this one.